Etymology

imbecile

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Today it means: A person with limited mental capacity who can perform tasks and think only like a young child, in medical circles meaning a person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal five- to seven-year-old child. Full definition →

Middle French imbécile ← Latin imbēcillus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromimbēcillus“weak, feeble”
  2. Middle French · borrowed fromimbécile
  3. English todayimbecile

Borrowed from Middle French imbécile, from Latin imbēcillus (“weak, feeble”), literally “without a staff”.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.